South Leeds Lakers held their annual ‘Hunslet Handicap’ in partnership with the Hunslet Rugby Foundation on Sunday (4 August 2019).
This was the fourth running of the race, but this year a new trophy was inaugurated to remember Lakers member John Metcalf who tragically died earlier this year from cancer.
Between race entries, donations and sales of a special TLC (This Laker Can) t-shirt, the club raised over £500 for Wheatfields Hospice.
The race was a 5km course around Middleton Park from South Leeds Stadium, the twist was that as a handicap, the slowest runners started first. Handicaps were calculated based on members’ results at parkrun.
A perfect handicap would see all 36 runners (and one dog) cross the finish line together. Of course that didn’t happen, but the three podium positions were taken by Mark Craven, 3rd, who had a 14 minute handicap; Janet Bentley, 2nd, who ad no handicap, she was in the first group out; and Andy Cable 1st who had a handicap of 3 minutes. All 36 finished within ten minutes of each other.
Winner Andy Cable is a graduate of the Lakers’ Couch to 5k (C25K) programme for new runners. If you would like to join this programme a new group will e starting in September led by an experienced run leader, contact the club via Facebook
South Leeds Lakers run every Tuesday evening at 7pm, usually from Beeston Co-op. Groups run a range of distances, it’s free to join and you don’t need to book, but please arrive by 6:45pm if it’s your first time to complete some paperwork.
